Testimonies concerning Johannes Scottus Eriugena.

The same William in the same book.

Referring to William of Malmesbury’s Gesta Pontificum Anglorum (Deeds of the English Bishops).

Warin, a monk of Lyre, was substituted for Turald -----? when he first came to the abbey [of Malmesbury], looking down upon the deeds of his predecessors, he was carried away by a certain pride and disgust [toward] the bodies of the saints. Finally, the bones of Meildulph of holy memory and the others—who were once Abbots there, and afterwards Bishops in many places, and had ordered themselves to be buried in that place out of reverence for their patron Aldhelm—whom venerable antiquity had reverently placed in two stone vessels on either side of the altar, with wooden partitions arranged between the bones of each; these, I say, all heaped together like a pile of rubbish or like the remains of cheap slaves, he cast out from the doors of the church. And lest any impudence be lacking, he even removed Saint Johannes Scottus, whom the monks worshipped with almost equal veneration as Saint Aldhelm. All these, therefore, he heedlessly ordered to be hidden and shut away with stones in the furthest corner of the Basilica of Saint Michael ----?. O the times, O the customs! Who could pursue such audacity with worthy reproach? etc.

The same from the Manuscript Codex Thuanus.

The "Codex Thuanus" refers to the library of Jacques Auguste de Thou.

You observe the custom of brotherly love, most beloved brother, in that you deem me worthy of such an arduous consultation. For it is a presumption of charity that you judge me not unequal to such a task. You instruct me to commit to letters where Johannes Scottus originated, where he died, and whom common opinion agrees is the author of the book called On Nature original: "περὶ φύσεως" (peri physeos): and at the same time, because a sinister rumor has spread concerning that book, that I should elucidate in a brief writing what things in it seem most opposed to the Catholic faith. And first, indeed, I think I shall do well if I explain promptly that the truth of such matters is not hidden from me; but as for the second—to call to judgment a man most well-known to the Latin world by merit of his knowledge, and who has long since departed from life and envy—that is higher than my strengths dare to aspire. For I also instinctively shrink from undermining the labors of greatest men, because, as a certain person says, "He acts wickedly who is over-clever regarding another's book." For this reason, I was almost contrary to such imperious commands, had it not long ago been settled in my mind that I should defer to you in all things, as to a most pleasing parent, even in those things which might weigh upon my brow or risk my modesty. Johannes, therefore, surnamed Scottus meaning "the Irishman", proves those who think he was a native of that nation to be in error, for he writes himself as "Heruligena" meaning "Heruli-born" in the title of the Hierarchy. Now, the nation of the Heruli was once most powerful in Pannonia, which history records was almost destroyed by the Lombards. Having left his fatherland, he came to France to Charles the Bald, by whom he was received with great honor and held as part of his intimate circle. He spent time with him (as I have said elsewhere) in both serious and playful matters, and was an inseparable companion of both his table and his chamber. Nor was there ever a disagreement between them, because the King, captivated by the miracle of his knowledge, would not rise up even in word against the master, though he was hasty in anger. At the King's request, therefore, he translated the Hierarchy of Dionysius from Greek into Latin, word for word; the result is that the Latin is scarcely understood, being constructed more with Greek fluidity than our own arrangement. He also composed a book which he titled On the Division of Nature original: "περὶ φύσεων μερισμοῦ" (peri physeon merismou), which is quite useful for the solution of certain perplexed questions—provided, however, he is forgiven in certain matters in which he strayed from the path of the Latins while he fixed his eyes too much upon the Greeks. He was a man of much...